The Karate Kid (2010)

If you’ve seen the 1984 “The Karate Kid,” the memories will come back while watching the 2010 remake. That’s a compliment. The original story was long-lasting to make three sequels, and now we have an entertaining remake made mostly on location in China, with Jackie Chan as this film’s Mr. Miyagi.

The original was one of the best movies of 1984. The 2010 remake lacks the perfect freshness of the original. There aren’t many surprises, as it follows the 1984 original almost verbatim. However, here is a nice and well-made film that stands on its own feet. The Chinese locations add visual beauty, there are parts of brilliance in mountains and on the Great Wall, and the characters are once again engaging.

The original film’s strongest part was the Oscar-nominated performance by Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi. Jackie Chan is so famous that it will not come as a surprise in his role of Mr. Han, a solitary janitor, when he tells a hidden secret for the martial arts. Roger Ebert noted, “But Chan has never been a strutting, macho fighter onscreen; his charm comes from a self-kidding quality. Here he does a good job of cooling down his usual cheerfulness and keeping his cards hidden.”

In the role of his student, Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, has a natural screen presence. Dre Parker is calmer than Daniel, but so much smaller than his opponents that we can completely buy his fear of a bully at school. When that happens, we can forget about going crazy over the 1984 film and enjoy this one. That was then, this is now.

The story once again tells about a kid being dragged with his divorced mom, played by Taraji P. Henson, as they leave his hometown and friends and move far away – from Detroit to Beijing, this time. He hates it. Then a cute young violinist named Meiying (Han Wenwen) smiles at him, and things start to look better – if it weren’t for the school bully Cheng (Wang Zhenwei). This kid is so hateful and vicious, it’s hard to explain, until we meet his evil Kung Fu coach, Master Li (Yu Rongguang). Ebert is right when he says, “The monstrous Li teaches a new form of child abuse: Kids beating up on each other.”

The story continues, as it should, with Dre slowly making Mr. Han come out, who saves him from a beating by Cheng and agrees to teach Dre Kung Fu. His training goes well, and Dre and Meiying make an agreement to attend each other’s important days: his Kung Fu tournament, her recital. Just like in the original movie, her parents, played by Zhensu Wu and Zhiheng Wang, disapprove of Dre. Why in the world would the parents of a great violinist disapprove of a Kung Fu student from Detroit who doesn’t speak Chinese?

Luckily for Dre and the movie, everyone in China who needs to speak English can do so, even his bully Cheng. Ebert noted, “Many Americans not only have little interest in learning another language, they have little interest in reading subtitles of their own. We believe, as Mark Twain put it in The Innocents Abroad, that any foreigner can understand English if it is only spoken slowly enough and loudly enough.”

It is pretty obvious that the entire film leads up to the climatic Kung Fu tournament, and that Dre is going to fight Cheng for the championship. The descent of the film is separated. The 1984 original was directed by John Avildsen, the same director of “Rocky.” This film’s climax is oddly well-handled. The tension is made in a careful way, the characters are developed, and the use of a scoreboard makes it look orderly, not rushed. Ebert admitted, “It's one of the better obligatory fight climaxes I've seen.”

Ebert goes on to admit, “The director, Harald Zwart, has not been one of my favorites; he made last year's "The Pink Panther 2." But here, with a robust script by Christopher Murphey and cinematography by Roger Pratt (who filmed two "Harry Potters"), he makes a handsome, absorbing movie.” It runs a little long, but during the championship, that’s the last thing you’re thinking of.

As much as the remake can be good, I can’t help but think how similar this one is to the original movie. Once again, it’s a repeat of the same formula, which at this point has become stale and repetitive. Still, I can say check this out, but you may not like it. If you don’t, I know exactly how you feel. I’m not saying that I didn’t like it or hate it, I thought it was nice, but it might have been better if they didn’t remake the movie.

For years I have been hearing of the possibilities of them making a sequel to this movie, but it’s been six years and nothing has been confirmed. We’ll see if there will be a sequel to this movie and if they plan to do something different, but it may not happen. Jaden Smith is getting older now and it may be difficult to make a movie with him as a young adult.

Well, that completes “The Karate Kid Month.” I hope all of you enjoyed my reviews, and hopefully I gave all of you good recommendations. You should check this series out if you haven’t because this is a beloved franchise that holds up to this day.

Check in next month to see what series I will look at next.

The Next Karate Kid

I can’t believe that director Christopher Cain, who replaced John G. Avildsen, thought that there was potential to make one more Karate Kid sequel. What story did he see that could have been made into another sequel? He should have just left it at three movies, especially since the third one was negatively received. I thought the story arc of these movies ended with the third movie.

When I rented the DVD from the library, the cover said both “The Karate Kid, Part III” and “The Next Karate Kid.” At first I thought it was a select screen to choose which one you wanted to watch, since DVD’s have that feature. It wasn’t until I figured out that I had to flip the disc to the other side in order to watch “The Next Karate Kid.” Was the film really that bad that it didn’t get its own DVD, but instead had to be put on the back of the other sequel that many people didn’t like?

Even Ralph Macchio didn’t reprise his main role in this one, which I feel glad that he didn’t. However, the bad part about it is that there isn’t really much of a follow up made to his character anywhere in this movie. There’s just a passing mention of him, and that’s about it.

As much as I don’t want to review this horrific sequel, I think I should just get it over with, so I will not delay this any longer. This is the 1994 sequel, which is also the worst sequel in this series and one of the worst sequels ever, “The Next Karate Kid.”

The movie opens in Boston, where Mr. Miyagi is attending a commendation for the 442^nd Regiment in World War II. There, he meets the widow of his commanding officer, Louisa Pierce, played by Constance Towers. She invites him over to her house, where Mr. Miyagi meets Louisa’s granddaughter, Julie Pierce, played by Hilary Swank in one of her first roles. She apparently is a very uptight high school teen since her parents died in a car accident, and her relationship with Louisa is not so strong. Mr. Miyagi tries to solve this by sending Louisa back to his house in California to take care of his bonsai trees, while he stays in Boston to take care of Julie and her aggressive behavior.

At school, Julie is hiding a hawk named Angel, voiced by Frank Welker, who has an injured wing, and is constantly harassed by the head of her school’s security called Alpha Elite, Ned, played by Michael Cavalieri. I really hate this character since he is such a snotty-nose brat. Alpha Elite is led by a man named Colonel Dugan, played by Michael Ironside. You know that he is the villain, but how come he always likes to play that? Is it because his eyebrows easily give it away? Also, if you thought John Kreese from Cobra Kai was insane, this guy takes it to the nth degree. I feel like the school didn’t do a background check on him. What he teaches his comrades are just odd and cruel. One of the members that doesn’t make the team is Julie’s crush named Eric McGowen, played by Chris Conrad.

One of the biggest problems with this movie is that they changed the character of Mr. Miyagi a little bit. In the first “The Karate Kid” movie, Mr. Miyagi clearly said to Daniel that he never taught anyone karate. However, when Julie said to Mr. Miyagi that her father taught her karate, who was taught by Julie’s grandfather, Mr. Miyagi tells Julie that he taught Julie’s grandfather karate as a way of thanking him for saving Mr. Miyagi’s life during WWII. WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?!?!?!? IT MAKES NO SENSE!!!!!

Julie is such a jerk to Mr. Miyagi where she is telling him that she doesn’t need any work from school to know where she is going with her life, since she already has that part planned out. What direction are you going in, down on the streets where you have no life!? Additionally, how dare she insult Mr. Miyagi by saying he can’t speak English!!!! You do not disrespect Mr. Miyagi!!! She also says to Mr. Miyagi that he doesn’t know anything about girls, and he admits that he needs to learn a lot about girls while also saying that boys are easier. I agree with him since Daniel never gave him this hard of a time.

Julie gets suspended from school for a few weeks because she gets caught sneaking in to school to take care of Angel, so Mr. Miyagi takes her to a Monastery to teach her karate, and she is so impatient on not being able to learn it quickly. Once again, Daniel didn’t understand Mr. Miyagi’s way of teaching, but he never gave Mr. Miyagi this much disrespect and impatience to not being able to learn anything right away! The Grand Abbot, played by Arsenio ‘Sonny’ Trinidad, saves an insect from being squashed by Julie’s shoe, and she thinks it’s stupid that nothing is killed in a Monastery. What is this girl’s problem? Does she not have any respect for anyone or anything! Because I clearly think she doesn’t!!

Mr. Miyagi wants Julie and Eric to go to the prom together, but how does Mr. Miyagi guess her dress size at the store? He just gives some vague descriptions, so how is the tailor able to guess the right dress size for Julie? At the prom, why does one of the Alpha Elite members decide to bungee jump from the ceiling of the gymnasium and into the table? Ned claims that his comrade was brave to try it, but HE BROKE HIS ARM YOU IDIOT!!!! Are you saying that he was brave to try acting like a moron!?!?!?

Throughout the movie, Ned keeps talking about the docks and we don’t get to see them until the final act. One thing I don’t understand is: what is up with Alpha Elite!?!?!? They “do not” qualify as high school security. They are a gang! Why is that? They blew up Eric’s car then gang up and beat him down! Colonel Dugan says to finish him off since he was training them, for what I can think is, murder. THIS IS SCHOOL SECURITY!!! WHERE IN THE JOB DESCRIPTION DOES IT SAY THAT MURDERING IS A PART OF THE JOB!?!?!? SCHOOL SECURITY WRITE HALL PASSES AND SEND STUDENTS TO THE CAFETERIA FOR LUNCH!!!!

Colonel Dugan says that the war isn’t over because one battle is lost, which I don’t get what war he is talking about. WHO ON EARTH IS THIS GUY!?!?! WHERE DID THEY FIND HIM!?!?! Whoever hired this guy didn’t carefully evaluate him before giving him the job.

How come Mr. Miyagi claims that he always tries to look for ways to not fight, but always ends up in fights? He fights in every movie.

In the end, this movie is really bad, but I do give credit to Hilary Swank for making her character grow throughout the movie. She does end up being likable, but she can’t save this sequel at all by making her character become likable. My advice is to never bother with this movie because you will not like it at all. I know that the only female characters that little girls could look up to at the time were the Power Rangers girls from the shows, but they should have done a better job in this movie to portray a good, strong female role model for little girls. Even though Julie did grow and got better throughout the duration of the movie, she didn't come off as a good female role model for little girls. If you didn’t like “The Karate Kid, Part III,” you will definitely not like this one at all. Instead, you will wish that the series just stayed as a trilogy. So don't torture yourself by watching this cinematic garbage with "The Karate Kid" name on it.

Oh boy, that was a relief. I was happy that they never made another sequel, but I do know there was the cartoon that I never heard of or watched until The Nostalgia Critic and James Rolfe mentioned it briefly in their videos. However, they did make a remake to “The Karate Kid,” which I will look at next week in the finale to “The Karate Kid Month.”

The Karate Kid Part III

Now we have come to “The Karate Kid, Part III,” released in 1989. The movie starts with John Kreese completely shattered after losing all of his students and his dojo running out of business. Seeking help, he goes to his old army friend and affluent businessman, Terry Silver, played by Thomas Ian Griffith, who tells John that he should go on vacation while Terry hashes out a plan to get revenge on Mr. Miyagi and Daniel.

Speaking of Mr. Miyagi and Daniel, they return home from Okinawa, only to find that the apartment complex has been sold and will be demolished so that the new owner can build a spa. Mr. Miyagi is out of a job and Daniel and his mother are now homeless, but Mr. Miyagi lets Daniel stay with him. Daniel’s mother calls him and says that she will be staying with his Uncle Louie, played by Joseph V. Perry, since he has emphysema. Daniel tells his mom that Kumiko was offered a good job at a Tokyo dance company and didn’t come with them back home. She is thrilled since Daniel is starting college, but Daniel instead uses the money set aside for his college registration to pay a lease for Mr. Miyagi to open a bonsai store. Daniel insists to Mr. Miyagi that he needs a break from school since he was going nonstop and with the money that both of them will make from the bonsai store, he will go to college once he feels he is ready. That sounds understandable, since there are high school students who don’t go to college right away. Although most of them do, there are some that either go into work or the army before going back to college.

Terry finds in the magazine a number to call “karate bad boy” Mike Barnes, played by Sean Kanan. While Terry is taking a bath, he gives Mike instructions on what he needs to do in order to make Daniel enroll in the Karate Tournament. Even though Daniel and Mr. Miyagi talked about the tournament, Daniel telling Mr. Miyagi that he only needs to fight in the championship round, Miyagi saying that his Karate will be meaningless if he is just defending a trophy, and Daniel says he won’t compete, Mike and his two cohorts, Snake (Jonathan Avildsen) and Dennis (William Christopher Ford) go to such extreme ends to finally make Daniel enroll. Now, Mr. Miyagi says that he won’t train Daniel, so Terry stages different ways to make Daniel trust Terry and have him be Daniel’s new trainer. Mr. Miyagi did teach Daniel the kata technique, which according to Terry, "It's great for working off the sweat."

I do feel sorry for Daniel when he meets a pottery girl named Jessica Andrews, played by Robyn Lively, who he does get a crush on, until she says that she has a boyfriend back home in Columbus, Ohio and will be returning home after sometime. What is it with Daniel and his bad luck with girls?

I do admit that it is sad to see Daniel and Mr. Miyagi having some differences, since we love seeing both of them together. This is all part of Terry’s plan to break Daniel down and have him feel fear. All of it is coming together, which is actually something that you feel scared for Daniel. However, Mr. Miyagi takes on John, Terry and Mike at the Cobra Kai Dojo single-handedly, which is the best part of the movie.

You probably wouldn’t be surprised if I told you that the last fight at the Karate Tournament against Mike and Daniel is just a rehash of the first movie. In fact, many people complained that this movie was a repeat of the first movie, which I can see why they say that. It wasn’t the next story. Instead, it repeats the same formula that the first movie did so well. James Rolfe and Nostalgia Critic said the only difference between the first one and this was that there were two villains instead of one, since they both said Terry Silver was the only reason to watch it.

My personal opinion is that I don’t think this is a good movie, but I find it ok. I do agree that John Kreese and Terry Silver are just a joy to watch, especially when they are both together just to see the two of them make a plan and enjoy when it’s all coming together. When you see Terry Silver bluffing to Daniel, you can easily see the two faces at work. One is really nice and is willing to help, but the other is laughing since he got Daniel right where he wants him. You could probably see that he is trying to not crack his smile, but it’s really hard for him to do that.

I won’t highly recommend this movie, but watch it if you like. To me, I wasn't as disappointed as everyone else was, but the perfect adjective is underwhelming. Overall, I thought it was an alright, fine flick. If you think that you won’t like this movie, especially since nothing new is developed in here, then I completely understand. However, I found that this movie was average, and I think it would not hurt to watch it, but the choice is yours.

Anyway, you would think that this movie would be the last one, especially since I don’t think anyone liked it, but they didn’t stop there. Wait until next week to find out how poorly they did the next movie in “The Karate Kid Month.”

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Tonight, I finally got a chance to see “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which came out last month. If you remember my “Batman and Robin” review, I said that this was in the works but was scrapped immediately. However, this was in talks forever. Now we finally got it, and how does the end result fair out? 

Allan Hunter started his review out by saying, “In Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, it’s fisticuffs at 20 paces as the Caped Crusader and the Man Of Steel decide that humanity can only survive if one of them doesn’t. It’s billed as the greatest gladiator fight in the history of the planet, the result of which is a chaotic comic book extravaganza that careers between exhilaration and exasperation.”

A combination of death and destruction built around moral dilemmas, ethical issues and observational fear, this makes the cheerful innocence of the Christopher Reeve time feels like so long. Even if you were paying attention at the end of “Man of Steel,” you might not have noticed the final fight between Superman and General Zod ended in the destruction of Wayne Enterprises and many people died in that.

Worrying, grief-stricken Bruce Wayne, played by Casey Affleck’s older brother, Ben Affleck, can neither forgive nor forget, continuing to think of Superman as a reckless enemy of the human race who must be destroyed. The trouble-making Alexander “Lex” Luther, played by an enjoyably crazy Jesse Eisenberg, has his own sneakiness plan to kill a superhero, requiring a huge amount of Kryptonite.

As the fight between Superman and Wayne’s crime-fighting alter ego Batman heats up, other elements get mixed in, including the arrival of Wonder Woman (the hot Gal Gadot), the death-daring experiences of reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and the campaign by Senator Finch (Holly Hunter) to make Superman accountable for his actions.

There is enough going on in “Batman v Superman” to fill a handful of films. Director Zack Snyder keeps it moving at a decent pace but between the flashbacks, fantasy orders and loads of characters the film feels like it is exploding at the climax.

Hunter stated in his review, “The violence and spectacle easily outshine the soul-searching dilemmas and there is a thunderous score by Hans Zimmer. Everything is big, bombastic and overwrought and by the end it feels amazing anything or anyone is left standing or that the film only secured a 12 certificate.” Affleck is correctly tortured and heartless as a grouchy old Batman but Cavill is still on the boring side as Superman.

Jeremy Irons is a nice addition as a sarcastic, long-suffering Alfred, telling Bruce Wayne: “You’ve got too old to die young.” Hunter is right when he said, “Despite its flaws this film works on its own terms as the inky black visuals and cliff-hanging plot create something that feels true to its comic book origins.” It also leaves enough up in the air to keep the franchise running for many years.

Now, I know that this film has been getting bad reviews from critics. However, I do not think this is a great movie by any means, or even one of the best. Still, I don’t think this is as bad as everyone says it is, and is not even anywhere close to being one of the worse comic book adaptations or one of the worst movies. I thought that it was fine and there was plenty in it that kept me engaged.

In the end, if you want to see this movie, you can see it if you like. Otherwise, if you think it is better to just rent it when it comes out on Blu-Ray, then go right ahead. I personally am happy I saw this, and it was a fine first entry in the Justice League build-up movies.

Hopefully I gave everyone a good recommendation. I won’t spoil anything since I don’t like doing that, especially since this movie came out a few weeks ago. Check in next Friday for the third entry in “Karate Kid Month.”

The Karate Kid Part II

Welcome back to “The Karate Kid Month,” where today we will look at the 1986 sequel, “The Karate Kid, Part II.”

Much like how the “Rocky” series started with each sequel, this one opens with a recap of the first movie. After the recap, it starts immediately after the fight where Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are leaving the tournament and see John Kreese taking all of his anger out on his students, even strangling Johnny. That is until Mr. Miyagi comes in and puts Kreese in his place. Why does Daniel ask Mr. Miyagi why he didn’t kill John Kreese? You think Mr. Miyagi wanted to go to prison for murder? I like Miyagi’s response though: “Because for person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death.”

The movie than cuts to six months later where Daniel arrives at Mr. Miyagi’s house livid. Daniel tells how bad his prom went, Ali borrowed his car and caused a mechanical problem, Ali found a new boyfriend and his mom accepted a temporary transfer to Fresno and Daniel will have to go with her. Mr. Miyagi calms him down, but gets a letter in the mail that his father, played by Charlie Tanimoto, is on his deathbed and Mr. Miyagi books his ticket to go back to Okinawa to see him. Mr. Miyagi tells Daniel the reason he left home was because his best friend, Sato (Danny Kamekona), and Mr. Miyagi were in a love triangle with Yukie (Nobu McCarthy). Sato wanted to fight Mr. Miyagi, but Mr. Miyagi left, never to return since he hates fighting.

The next day, Daniel arrives at the airport with his baggage, saying that he persuaded his mother to let him go to Okinawa with Mr. Miyagi, using the money in his savings account, which was meant for his college tuition. When they arrive, they are greeted by Chozen, played by Yuji Okumoto, who happens to be Sato’s nephew.

Similarly to how the first “The Karate Kid” movie was all about Daniel, this one is all about Mr. Miyagi. When Mr. Miyagi’s father passes away, there is a very emotional scene where Daniel talks to Mr. Miyagi about his experience when his father passed away. When you watch that part, it is hard not to get choked up when watching it.

While Daniel is on this trip, he meets Yukie’s niece, Kumiko, played by Tamlyn Tomita, who becomes his love interest. Although I don’t understand why all of a sudden Daniel has a rivalry with Chozen as soon as he arrives. Does Chozen hate Americans, or was he taught to hate anyone that is associated with Mr. Miyagi? Maybe he has a crush on Kumiko and wants to compete with Daniel for her, similar to how Mr. Miyagi and Sato did with Yukie. These are just my speculations, I don’t know completely. I understand the rivalry and grudge between Mr. Miyagi and Sato since they have had this rivalry for years.

I agree with James Rolfe when he says that during a typhoon, Mr. Miyagi saves Sato from the dojo and the next day, Sato asks Miyagi to forgive him. Really, it all comes down to an act of nature to reconcile? Why didn’t you understand that Mr. Miyagi hates fighting? Plus, you’re his best friend, it should have stopped right there. Why did it come to Mr. Miyagi saving Sato that he decided to ask for forgiveness? I do like that Sato doesn’t hold his grudge against Mr. Miyagi anymore, but the reason to ask for forgiveness did not seem right.

However, Chozen still wants to fight Daniel at the O-bon festival. Plus, unlike the Karate Tournament from the first movie, this is a fight to the death. Just like how Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel a lot of Karate moves from the first movie, like waxing the car, sanding the floor, painting the house and fence, and even the Crane Kick, this movie has Mr. Miyagi teach Daniel the drum technique.

One thing that I noticed is that this movie had a lot of influence for the video game on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). I never played that game, but I did see James Rolfe play it as the Angry Nintendo Nerd at the time. The first level was taken from the Karate Tournament at the end of the first movie. The rest of the game was influenced from this movie, like the handheld drum training, breaking the glass, catching the flies with chopsticks (which is also in the first movie), and the village levels that are both in the sunshine and in the rain, and so on.

Even though James Rolfe and Nostalgia Critic say that this movie isn’t as good as the first movie, this is actually my personal favorite of the franchise. It tells the next story, develops the characters further in a good way, and it was overall a very humanizing movie. Not only is this my personal favorite of the franchise, it is another one of my favorite films of all time. Definitely check this one out, especially if you liked the first movie, and I promise you, you will also like this one as well.

Do you want to know what I thought of the third movie? You will have to wait next week in my next installment of “The Karate Kid Month.”

The Karate Kid (1984)

I’m really excited for this month, because as I stated in my past few reviews, I have wanted to review this franchise for a “long” time. Now I finally got the opportunity, so I will let everyone know my thoughts on this series. Enough of all the build-up, let’s get started with one of my absolute favorite movies, “The Karate Kid,” released in 1984.

Anyone who hasn’t seen this movie knows the basic story. Daniel LaRusso (the great Ralph Macchio) moves with his mother (Randee Heller) from Newark, New Jersey to Reseda, California. Daniel meets a very friendly girl named Ali, played by Elisabeth Shue, who is on his high school’s cheerleading squad, and they become friends. The only problem is that Ali has an aggressive ex-boyfriend named Johnny, played by William Zabka, who is one of the biggest jerks ever. When Daniel tries to defend Ali, he gets beat up by Johnny and his group of friends (Ron Thomas, Rob Garrison, race car driver Chad McQueen and Tony O’Dell). What Daniel doesn’t know is that Johnny and his friends are a part of the Cobra Kai Karate Dojo, where they are taught by ex-Special Forces Vietnam veteran John Kreese, played by Martin Kove, to use karate as a weapon. Daniel tries to fight back, but that only makes matters worse for him. They abuse their karate against Daniel at any possible chance they get, until Daniel is saved by the handyman at his apartment complex, Mr. Miyagi, played by the late Pat Morita. Daniel convinces Mr. Miyagi to teach him karate, and signs Daniel up for a karate tournament, where he fights the Cobra Kai and earns their self-respect. That’s the basic jest of it, but there are other parts where I won’t spoil.

To start off, we have to talk about the characters. Ralph Macchio plays Daniel LaRusso as a role that he has forever been famous for. Macchio is very believable in this role. Daniel is an unstable youth and has some issues, which is understandable because all high school students are like that since they are trying to find out what kind of a person they really are. He’s normally a nice kid, except when he is pushed too far. He makes some bad choices, since he doesn’t know what to do, where he perpetually gets himself into more trouble than he was expecting. Again, this is understandable because think back to your teenage years and the daring moves you made back than. Your teenage years are all about finding out what kind of a person you are, and that is clearly evident in Daniel. He is one of the most relatable characters in film history. However, once he becomes friends with Mr. Miyagi, he learns how to gain control over his life and they grow close to one another. You could compare Daniel to Rocky Balboa, since they are both Italian and have similar personalities.

Pat Morita will always be remembered as Mr. Miyagi, the classic mentor of this movie. The difference between Miyagi to Rocky’s trainer, Mickey, is Mickey is completely broken and his days of boxing have been up for years. However, we actually get to see Mr. Miyagi fight on a number of occasions and he beats up anyone who tries to harm Daniel. As I stated in my Rocky review, Mickey was grouchy and bitter, but Mr. Miyagi is calm and self-controlled.

Both Daniel and Mr. Miyagi have experienced tragedies in their past. Daniel’s father passed away and Mr. Miyagi (which we find out on his anniversary night) lost his wife and son due to complications at birth. The heart of the movie is the relationship between these two. At first, Daniel underestimates Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Miyagi doesn’t want to get involved in Daniel’s situations. However, with things taking a turn, they eventually become closer than friends. Mr. Miyagi becomes like a second father to Daniel and Daniel becomes like the son Mr. Miyagi never had, which completes them.

Martin Kove is excellent as John Kreese. He is the reigning champion of jerks. Johnny and his friends are his pawns and he encourages them to use their karate as a weapon. James Rolfe commented that this is a little too absurd but he couldn’t imagine it any other way since Kreese is the villain you love to hate. You have no idea how many times my brother has used the “Sweep the leg” line on me.

You can definitely see where all the bullies get their bad influence from once you see them in the dojo being trained by Kreese. This is evident to Mr. Miyagi, who tells Daniel: “No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher. Teacher say, student do. The problem is attitude because boys have bad attitude.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Randee Heller plays a great mother. She doesn’t really understand all of Daniel’s frustrations and never bothered to listen what he thinks. However, as the movie progresses, they both grow close. The same can be said for Elizabeth Shue, who does play a very strong love interest to Daniel as Ali. She and Daniel go on and off with one another since they both love one another and support their thoughts. You can see that Daniel and Ali complete one another and she is the right girl for Daniel in this time of need.

Nostalgia Critic mentioned that he never understood why Mr. Miyagi didn’t show Daniel the karate moves instead of making him wax cars, sand floors, and paint the fence and house. However, that was the suspense that was being built up. We, as an audience, didn’t know that he was doing the same thing, but after realizing that Mr. Miyagi’s teachings were actually for Daniel and it wasn’t for manual labor, that was one of the best surprises ever. This was for Muscle memory. It's like what Mr. Miyagi told Daniel that Karate is in the mind and heart and never in the type of belt you have.

James Rolfe mentioned that a lot of the background music makes the movie feel dated because it has a somewhat synthpop sound, but there are some scores by Bill Conti, which are pretty good. Not only that, but John Avildsen directs this movie, the training montages are all there, and the same basic formula as “Rocky,” but with Karate in it. Of course this movie has Joe Esposito’s You’re the Best, which is used in the tournament montage. You have to love this song, which I have on my iPhone. The next party I have, I’m going to put on this song and see how many people do Crane Kicks. During the end credits, Survivor’s Moment of Truth plays which isn’t one of their best songs.

In the end, I have to say that this movie holds up very well. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you shouldn’t even have read my review on it. Go out and see it because it is a must. After you have watched this movie, you will be constantly saying “Wax on, wax off.” This is heavy on nostalgic values and pop culture jokes, but you will love this movie, I promise you. This movie has stood the test of time and it has aged, but still has the force.

Check in for the remainder of the month to hear my thoughts on every sequel in this franchise, since this is “Karate Kid Month.”